45 18 APRIL 2024 Weekending HAMPSTEAD Weekend walks Ash Bhardwaj joins a walking tour with a focus on one of the area’s most famous residents – artist John Constable Information Best map OS Explorer Map 173: London North Start Whitestone Pond, NW3 1EA Finish 28 Church Row, NW3 6UP Distance 2.5 miles Duration 90 minutes Di culty Easy Hampstead is a part of London famed for its open spaces and stunning views. But it’s also a place of deep social and cultural history – this heritage is revealed on walking tours led by art critic and historian Estelle Lovatt. “Two hundred years ago, Hampstead was a village and farming community, and the cottages that now sell for £3 million were home to labourers who worked the land,” she says. “Artist John Constable fell in love with the area during his apprenticeship at the Royal Academy. He lived in Bloomsbury and missed the open skies and wide spaces of his Su olk home, so he walked the three miles to the Heath every day. When he married his sweetheart Maria, they moved to Hampstead to raise their children.” Estelle begins her walk near Constable’s favourite painting spot on west Heath, near Whitestone Pond. His paintings, including The Hay Wain and The Vale of Dedham, captured rural life and landscapes, but were dismissed by his professor as “nasty little green things”. The public preferred portraits and battles, such as those painted by Turner, and Constable struggled to sell his art in London. His work was appreciated by the French, but Constable refused to sell it there, given the bitter wars between Britain and France. He was reminded of that history every time he walked along Squire’s Mount, where French cannons captured during the Napoleonic Wars were repurposed as bollards (they’re still there today). The Constables eventually bought 40 Well Walk (currently a Grade-II listed Georgian building and on the market for almost £5 million), which sits opposite a well that gave the road its name. The ironrich water from here was thought to have medicinal properties, and was sold in bottles at The Wells Tavern, Constable’s local pub. It no longer serves iron water, but has a great selection of beers and views of St Paul’s Cathedral. Heading down Flask Walk, Estelle took us past The Flask pub (which also sold the water – in flasks) and over the High Street into Church Row, with its grand Georgian buildings and St John-at-Hampstead Church, one of the oldest in London and the final resting place of John and Maria. The artist had little success in his lifetime, and it was only after his death that he became appreciated for his style and subject matter. Constable’s sketches and drawings (to which Estelle refers on the tour) are expressionistic, even impressionistic, and his love of nature became ever-more appreciated as Romanticism gained momentum in London. Ash’s book Why We Travel: A Journey Into Human Motivation (Bedford Square) is out now. @ashbhardwaj CAPITAL VIEWS Whitestone Pond, Hampstead Heath (main); St John-at-Hampstead Church (above); Flask Walk (left); Constable’s blue plaque at Well Walk (bottom left) Photographs: Getty Images, Alamy
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